Birds and Canopy

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Hi,

It is Omer and today I am going to tell you about a village called Mindo. Mindo is a cloud forest surrounded by many activities. It is two hours away from Quito, the Capital of Ecuador.
Our hostel was called Cabanas Armonia (or in English “Harmony Cabins”) and it had also an orchid garden. There were 2 dogs: one called Balu and the other Osito.
When we got to Mindo it was already afternoon so we were very tired after all the bus rides of the day (2 bus rides from Otavalo). So, we went to the hostel, we checked in and went to look for a restaurant to have dinner.

The next morning we had breakfast in the hostel, then we went to the town and looked how can we sign up to do canopy. After about half an hour, we signed up for canopy and we went looking to have lunch and buy products for dinner because they said we have an hour or so until canopy will start.

We went with a pick up to the canopy (in Hebrew we call it Omega). The canopy had 13 zip - lines. There was also a different canopy place with 10 zip-lines, but we preferred the bigger one. It was really really lots of FUN - I wish I could do it every day! We did not only do the zip lines in the regular way, we did also tricks. There were two tricks: one is called “butterfly” and the other one is called “Superman”. If you want to do a trick you need to go with the guide. I did the butterfly once - the butterfly is when the guide holds your legs upwards and your head is down and you open or split your arms to the sides. There was also a trick called “train” - this is when you go with the guide + 3 people and all together do the canopy. I did it together with Dad, Shacahr and the guide - It was on one of the last zip lines, and it was really fun.

After we finished sliding in all 13 zip lines, we went to a frog concert. The frog concert is in a little lake where there are many many frogs. There is also a path besides it in the forest. It was really nice to see and hear the frogs singing. The guide explained us the difference between frog and toad. Toad lives in the land and it is bigger than a frog and frog lives in the trees and it is smaller. There was also a dog that helped us to find the toads. The dog was pregnant.

After we finished the visit to the frog concert we went back to our hostel and did a BBQ - after many months we did not do it. I was thrilled to put the fire on, like in Argentina.

The next morning at about 5:30am we went for guided Bird Watching tour in the jungle / cloud forest. It was really nice we saw a lot of birds, especially Tucans - we saw 4 species of Tucans out of the 5 that are in this area of Mindo. We also some squarels, Quetzal, Trogons and Mot Mot. The quetzal is different than the one we tried to see in Boquete in Panama but it was still beautiful. We could see all these birds, mainly thanks to our guide (Marcelo) and his telescop. My dad tried to take photos of the birds with his camera, but it was very hard, because the birds were far away (especially the Tucans) even with his zoom. It was quite a long walk, because it was about 10km - 7 km to go, and 3 km to come back, because in the middle of the way back we took a taxi. When we got back to the hostel, we found Shachar and Nitzan already awake and after breakfast (they did not come with us to the bird watching tour because Shachar did not want to walk a lot, and good that he did not come, as indeed it was very long. Nitzan was very tired to wake up early and also she offered to stay with Shachar so he would not be alone). We were very hungry and very tired from this walk, so after having breakfast, we took some time to rest (and also a lot of time for my parents to be on the internet for all kind of things).

In the afternoon, we went to a chocolate tour in a very small chocolate factory, that is inside a hostel in Mindo. It was really nice. We also got tot try some of the cacao fruit and the beans, but the beans were very bitter. The guide explained to us the whole process of making chocolate, from the cacao fruit until the tasty chocolate bar. At last we also a got a chocolate brownie with ice cream. It was Shachar's birthday that day, so it was nice to have this cake and ice cream, as it kind of was Shachar's birthday cake.

To reallycelebrate Shachar's birthday, we again did BBQ dinner. We bought Shachar a small present, we sang him birthday songs in all 3 languages, we gave him greeting cards and hugged and kissed... I made for him a special card in the format of a hot air baloon, though it could not really fly, it did have a basket like, so we could put all the other cards in the basket.

The next morning, we left with the first bus (again we had to wake up really early in the morning) that leaves Mindo toward Quito. But, we did not go with it all the way to Quito, we stopped a little before that in a place called "Mitad Del Mundo" or in English 'The Middle of the World'. It is a very interesting museum where the equator line pass - the equator is the line marked as 0 and it is in the middle of the world. Ecuador is actually called after this line. This line divides the world into north and south. They have in the museum many things about the Indians that live in Ecuador, but the most interesting part for me was the part that they explain about the equator. We walked on the equator line in blind eyes, but it was very hard to on the line, we also saw how the water goes down in a sink, and how above the line it goes straightly down, while in the north or south it goes first in kind of a circle. We also saw how the water rotate to different side in the south Vs. the north. The guide also showed us that we are stronger if we are not on the equator line - when we were in the south or north, she could not open our fingers, but when we were standing right on the line, she could easily open our fingers. It was really interesting and fun museum.

When we finished visiting the museum, we took another bus to Quito. We stayed there in a nice hostel (Casa Kanela), we walked a little in the old town of Quito in the afternoon, but it was slightly rainy, so we did not do much. Quito was not so interesting, so I think our next blog, will be on our trip after Quito.

If you want to see more pictures from Mindo, Mitad Del Mundo or from Quito, you can hit the following links:

Photos from Mindo

Photos from Mitad Del Mundo and Quito



I miss you all, bye bye,

Omer

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Photos

Canopy "Train"
Dad is in Superman position and we are behind him

Tucan
Mindo, Ecuador

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